It Started at the Harbor
by hershey345
Summary: The story of Newsies told from the perspective of a 17 year old girl.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

The smell of fish was overpowering in Moira's nostrils. It was

always like that when she first started walking along the harbor.

Everyday she would ask herself why she walked through the harbor,

then she would reach the corner.

"Baby born wit' two heads!" The boy at the corner yelled. Moira

felt her cheeks turn bright red, and possibly her whole face. "Two

heads?" Moira asked, locking her blue-gray eyes to his brown ones.

"Yeah. So you wanna buy a pape?" "I would love to," Moira said

smiling. "Dat'll be a penny, ma'am." The boy replied, with the

sweetest smile Moira had ever seen. Reaching into her skirt pocket

Moira took out a penny and handed it to the boy as he handed her his

last copy of the "World." "You knows what?" The boy said, "I've been

selling you papes for two months and I still don't know your name."

Moira blushed even more, "uh, M-Moira. Moira Matthews. And you?" It

was the boys turn to blush now. "Crutchy," he said. "Well, its a

pleasure to meet you, Crutchy," Moira said. "Youse, too," Crutchy

replied in his New York accent.

"So wheres you headed?" Crutchy asked. "Just home," Moira

replied. "Which is where, exactly?" Moira gave her address to

Crutchy, who then smiled. "That's right by the Lodging House! Do you

mind if I joins ya?" "I would love that," Moira said smiling as

Crutchy took her right hand in his left.

Once the two of them had left the harbor, Moira took in a deep

breath of fishless air, which made Crutchy laugh. "I'm guessing that

youse don't like fish?" "Not fish, just the smell." "I knows whatcha

mean, but you gets used to it afta standin' in da harba all day." "I

bet you do," Moira replied. "I can barely stand being there for a few

minutes, but you do it all day, everyday! You're amazing!" Crutchy

smiled sheepishly. "I'm just doing my job, but I will admit that

sometimes it does stink." Moira giggled slightly. "Funny and cute."

Both of them blushed. "Well, uh," Crutchy said rubbing his neck. " I

better get youse home, its gettin' dark."

?????

"So I'll see you tomorrow?" Moira asked Crutchy outside of hr

apartment building. "Yeah. I'll meet youse in da park outside the

Lodging House," Crutchy said, running his hand through his curly

brown hair. "Okay, I'll see you then," Moira replied. For a second

she considered kissing Crutchy on the cheek, but decided against it.

She had only known Crutchy as Crutchy for a few hours, so a kiss was

probably the last thing on the agenda. "Bye," Crutchy said smiling.

"Bye," Moira replied, smiling back. "I love you," she whispered as

she watched Crutchy walk off, his crutch making a soft click with

every other step.

*****

"Sorry I'm late," Moira said as she walked into her small

apartment. Her brother Thomas looked up from his copy of the "New

York Sun," which he was a newsie for. "Don't worry 'bout it," he

said. "Bryan Denton took us to dinner at Tibby's" Moira rolled her

eyes. Bryan Denton was always taking the newsies out to dinner. "Did

you have fun with your boyfriend?" She asked jokingly. Moira always

bugged Thomas about dinner with Denton. "Hey! At least I got youse

somethin!" Thomas exclaimed. "Its on the counter." "You know I was

joking with ya, Tommy boy," Moira said walking over to the counter.

"Sure, sure," Thomas said going back to his paper.

On the counter was a square shaped object wrapped in paper.

Opening the paper, Moira saw that it was one of Tibby's world famous

grilled-cheese sandwiches. "You know that I don't deserve you as a

brother, right?" She asked. "You are just so nice, and I'm just eck.

I don't even deserve to eat in your presence."

Thomas laughed. "You are such a ham."

"Would you love me any other way?"

"Nah. Go get changed and we can go up onto the roof."

"I'll meet you up there," Moira said, scarfing down the

grilled-cheese as Thomas climbed out onto their fire escape.

Moira pulled on an old pair of Thomas's pants and climbed onto

the fire escape. She paused for a second and pulled a hat over her

light-brown hair to stop it from blowing into her face while she

climbed. The rings on the ladder were ice-cold as Moira pulled

herself up onto the second to last landing before the roof. Stopping

for just a second, Moira rubbed her hands together to warm them up.

From the window to her left, she heard mumbling that sounded like,

"come back my lovey-dovey baby, and coochey-coo with me." Moira let

out a small chuckle as she started climbing again.

Once she was at the top, Moira burst out into a laughing fit

that startled Thomas so much, he fell back off of the ledge he was

sitting on. "What's so funny?" He asked, rubbing his head. "Well,

first of all you, and secondly, Les Jacobs. When I climbed past their

window Les started singing in his sleep. I have a feeling that David

took him to see Medda or something."

"Probably," Thomas replied, lying down on the roof. "Wow. Youse

can really see the stars tonight." Moira walked over to Thomas and

lay down next to him. "They're beautiful," she sighed. "Yeah. Wanna

knows the best part? Each one of them tells a story."

"Really?" Moira asked. "What does that moving one mean?"

"That's a shooting star," Thomas replied in awe. "If you makes

a wish on it it'll come true."

"So I can wish for anything?"

"Anyfing."

Moira took in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and made her wish.

"You knows what?" Thomas asked after a minute. "I don't thin

dat any story I tells ya would be nearly as exciting as that. I think

I'll head on inside now."

"Okay, I'm going to stay out for a few more minutes."

"Have fun," Thomas said as he dropped down onto the nearest fire escape.

Moira walked over to the side of the roof and looked out on the

city. She focused her attention on the building that was only a few

blocks away. In a window of the Lodging House was the silhouette of a

boy her age with curly hair and ears that were a little too big for

his head, but Moira thought that made him that much cuter. She

unconsciously waved at Crutchy, even though she knew he couldn't see

her. She was proven wrong as Crutchy waved back. Moira's face turned

bright red, like it did whenever she talked to Crutchy. Crutchy was

probably nervous, too, because he was rubbing his neck again. Crutchy

jumped slightly and turned around. After a second, he turned back and

shrugged apologetically. Moira shrugged back and blew him a kiss.

Crutchy "caught" the kiss and put it on his cheek before closing the

window and walking away.


	2. Chapter 2

Moira stood next to the statue in the newsie park and looked across

the street at all the newsies sitting, bummed, by the distribution

window. Since it was apparent that none of the boys were going to come over to Moira, she walked over to them. "What's going on?" She asked, sitting down next to Crutchy.

"They jacked up the price," a tall blonde boy with an eye patch said.

"I can barely afford food as it is," a darker skinned, curly haired

boy said, who had a girl with him whose hair was somewhere between

strawberry blonde and light red.

"I know this is probably a bad time to do this, with all the tension

and everything," Crutchy said, rubbing his neck again. "But, uh, this

is Moira. The goil I was telling youse about last night." All the

boys smiled and waved.

"Its nice to meet you," Moira said, awkwardly.

"Nice to meet youse, too," a dirty blonde haired boy said walking

over to Moira and Crutchy. "I'm Jack Kelly, and this is Mush,

Racetrack, Skittery, Kid Blink, Boots," Jack said, pointing to each

boy as he said their name. "Specs, Dutchy, Snoddy, Snipeshooter,

Snitch, Jake, Bumlets, Itey, Pie Eater, and Swifty."

"And this," Mush said, "is Melanie Daniels. Shes new to da newsie

family, too."

Moira looked at Crutchy skeptically. "Family?"

"Yeah. We're all so close that we's is like a family, and whenever of

us meets a new goil, she becomes part of da family."

Once Crutchy had finished explaining to Moira about their family, the

clock in the center of town struck eight.

"Crumb!" Moira exclaimed. "I'm going to be late for work!"

"Okay youse had better leave then," Crutchy said, standing up with

Moira. "Be safe," he said, looking down into Moira's eyes. Even

leaning on his crutch, he was a good two inches taller than her.

"Okay," Moira replied, wrapping her arms around Crutchy's neck, while

craning her own so her lips would meet his.* Even though it was just

a peck, they could both say that they had felt a spark. Moira heard

several of the boys cheering and probably patting Crutchy's back as

she walked away biting her lip and smiling.

****

"You're ten minutes late!" The supervisor yelled as Moira walked into

the factory where she worked.

"I know, it won't ever happen again," Moira said, gasping for air,

due to the fact that she had run the whole way from the "World"

building to there.

"It better not if you want to keep your job," the supervisor said,

glaring as Moira jogged over to her station.

****

Moira must not have been paying very much attention to what was going

on, because she felt something cut into her arm. Of course she was

used to getting cut, so she ignored it for a while, until a co-worker

exclaimed, "oh my gosh! Your arm is bleeding." Moira looked down and

saw that her left arm was soaked in blood. She immediately wished she

hadn't because the sight of blood made her faint.

****

When Moira woke up she was on a bed in a room that she had never seen

before. There were also two noises that she noticed. One was a soft

snoring and the other was a conversation.

"Are you sure that its the only way?" The familiar voice of Thomas asked.

"Positive. If we don't amputate the cut might get infected and kill her."

It took Moira a minute to understand that they were talking about her.

"Thomas," she whispered, her tongue feeling like sandpaper in her mouth.

"Moira," he replied, relieved.

"Where am I?" She asked, still in a whisper.

"You're in the hospital, don't worry. Just go back to sleep."

"Wait," a voice said to the right of Moira that made her heart flutter.

"I'm sorry,"** Moira said, looking over at Crutchy.

"For what?" He asked.

"For breaking my promise," she replied.

"Nah, don't worry 'bout it. Just go back to sleep."

"Okay," Moira said, smiling up at Crutchy sleepily. "Crutchy," she said.

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

Crutchy smiled and stroked the side of her face lovingly. "I love

youse, too," he said leaning down and kissing Moira for a full two

seconds before pulling away. The last thing Moira saw before

everything faded into blackness was Crutchy smiling down at her with

googly eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

"How much do you wanna bet that she won't wake up for anudda hour?"

"Can it, Race. I think she's wakin' up."

For a minute Moira thought that the voices were coming from inside her head, at least until she managed to open her eyes, despite the immense pain it caused her. She wished that she could just drift back to sleep and never wake up, but something was holding her back.

"Moira," a voice said softly to her right.

"Yeah?"

"Are you awake?"

"No," Moira replied. "I'm talking in my sleep."

Crutchy chuckled slightly. "Okay. Youse was startin' to scare us."

"Really? How long was I asleep?" Moira asked rolling onto her side so she could look at Crutchy.

"What time is it, Davey" Crutchy asked looking over at David Jacobs.

"About seven o'clock," David said looking at his pocket watch.

"So if youse went into surgery at noon, you would've gone back to sleep at about one. So youse was asleep for..." Crutchy paused as he counted on his fingers. "Six hours," he said, smiling and obviously pleased with himself.

"Wow," Skittery said from the back. "You've gone six hours without an arm and you haven't cracked yet." Everyone turned and gave him the death glare.

"Actually, I was doing so well at ignoring it until you brought it up" Moira said, with a look that a whole new meaning to the phrase ,"if looks could kill."

"I'm just sayin' that if it was me, I'd be dyin' of pain right now," Skittery said, seemingly immune to the eye daggers being thrown at him. At this point* almost everyone started pushing Skittery around and calling him names. While everyone was distracted Moira took the chance to look at her arm for the first time. Since she was on her side, it didn't take much effort for her to turn her head and see her arm, or what was left of it. Moira grimaced. Her arm stopped right before where her elbow would be, but she could still feel all of it.

"Phantom limb," Moira whispered glumly to herself.

"What?" Thomas and Crutchy asked at the same time.

"Oh, nothing... I guess," Moira replied uncertainly. "Its just... I can still feel the part of my arm that's gone now."

Thomas nodded understandingly.

"The doctor said that might happen. It's completely normal."

Crutchy looked at Thomas like he was crazy. "What do you mean completely normal?"

"The doctor said it, not me!"

"Guys!" Moira yelled, interrupting the soon to be argument.

"Sorry," the said in unison.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Thomas asked, looking apologetically at Moira.

"I don't know if there's anything that you _could_ do..." She replied, trailing off.

"How about this?" Crutchy said, kissing Moira on the lips.

"That helped a little bit, why don't you try it again?"

"How about not?" Thomas said, a disgusted look on his face.


	4. Chapter 4

Authors note: Starting now this story is in first person. I feel that it makes more sense, and it's easier for me to write in, so yeah....

Crutchy never left my side for the two days that I was in the

hospital. The day I was released, he walked up two flights of stairs to get to my apartment.

"You didn't have to do that," I said as we walked into the apartment.

"'Course I did," he replied, pecking me on the cheek. Thomas started to make retching noises behind us.

"Would you can it?" I said using lingo I had picked up from the boys in the hospital.

"Okay, sorry!" Thomas said in defeat.

"Well, uh, youse had better lay down," Crutchy said awkwardly.

"I'm sick of lying down! I've been doing nothing but for the past two days. I want to go out and see the world!" I exclaimed

"Okay," Crutchy replied eagerly.

"What?" Thomas yelled. "You just had surgery! There is no way I'm letting you out of this apartment."

"It wasn't a major surgery," Crutchy said shrugging.

"What do you mean it wasn't major? She's missing a freaking arm!"

I pulled my hand down my face. "Guys!" I exclaimed.

"Sorry," they said in unison.

"Thomas," I said. "I'm going to spend the day with Crutchy. I'll be fine."

"It's true," Crutchy added. "Moira will be poifectly safe wit' me."

It took a little bit of convincing, but Thomas finally agreed to let me spend the day with Crutchy

****

We were immediately put to work making signs for the strike when we got to the park. Most of the boys quickly lost interest, so it was just Swifty, Crutchy, and me working.

"Double down!" Racetrack called from next to us.

"Classic Race," Swifty said rolling his eyes. I laughed as I remembered the multiple times that Racetrack had tried to start a poker game in my hospital room.

"Indeed," I agreed. We were just about to stop working on the signs to watch the game when Jack, David, and Boots started towards us. The game immediately ceased as the boys noticed Jack.

"So where's Spot?" Racetrack asked.

"He was concerned 'bout us being serious. You imagine that?" Jack said incredulously.

"Well, Jack, maybe we ought to ease up a little."

"Without Spot and the others, there ain't enough of us Jack," Blink added.

"Maybe we're moving too soon," Mush said. "Maybe we ain't ready, ya know?"

"I definitely think we should forget about it for a while." Skittery said.

"Oh, do ya?" Jack asked glaring at him.

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I mean, we're not Brooklyn... you know?" Racetrack added glumly.

"Spot was right, is this just a game to you guys?" Jack asked disappointedly.

The boys stood around dejectedly as David tried to cheer them up. I wasn't really paying attention to Dave because Jack had started talking to us.

"Hey Crutchy," he said sitting down next to us.

"Hiya, Jack," Crutchy replied. "So Brooklyn didn't join?"

Jack shook his head.

"Shame. The Bronx said they'd join if Spot did."

"There and everywhere else," Jack said angrily.

"Well moping around won't help us prove to Spot that we's is serious, now will it," Crutchy said, trying to bring Jack's mood back up.

"I guess not," Jack said jumping up. As soon as he was on his feet the circulation bell started ringing. "Did anybody hear that?" He asked.

"No!" Everybody replied.

"So what are we gonna do 'bout it?"

"Soak 'em!" The boys yelled back.


End file.
